Gee I’ll be annoyed if they destroyed 4KQ (and 2CH) only to go broke anyway.
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Geez not a good article for SEN on the state of their finances…
They sure have been spending up big and guess this shows just how bad it has affected things
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Obviously no money in low-rating radio stations, hence why SEN is buying up big in sporting team, etc.
I wonder if they’ve made back the $12m they paid for 4KQ?
It certainly hasn’t made $12 million. Their report suggests it basically broke even (an operating profit of $30,000) on about $1.2 million of revenue since taking it over.
Per their statements, the 4KQ purchase was part of their expenses this financial year (2022/23, and not 21/22) as that transaction was recognised on 1 July 2022.
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Some creative accounting there.
Looks like it was roughly $118mil revenue and $116mil expenses. Surely they can turn it around if they don’t spend as much.
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I’ve always been saying and no one listens to me. How do they continue to get rights to all these major events and sports, buying sports teams, buying stations yet they still have money. It makes no sense!
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By the looks of it, they’re taking out loans/lines of credit with the Commonwealth Bank to fund these ventures. Sounds like the CBA is starting to get concerned about their situation as well.
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SEN SA is on DAB Radio however I got a brand new i30 3 weeks ago and they don’t appear on DAB, only AM. Luckily the new car can reach their obscure frequency of 1629. Old car couldn’t get it as it didn’t go that high. Would have thought they’d be pushing their digital radio aspect more. AM radio sounds terrible compared to DAB or FM.
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Why do SEN keep buying more and more stations and more and more rights to things? I can’t understand it? Just signed 4-5 year deal with NZ cricket for SENZ…
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I can’t imagine the contracts they have with staff either for payouts etc if things go under…
It’s not that nobody listens but as you can see we are mostly just as puzzled as you are.
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Nope, just AM and online streaming.
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There audience is actually quite substantial nationally on air and online, and it’s a niche target market 25-54 males which is a great sell for advertisers
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Debt.
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Thanks, glad to know. The definitely should be on DAB with their unusual and poor frequencies.
How can anyone just spend money they don’t have? Makes zero sense…
I have never been one to loan money or have a credit card because I feel if you don’t have the money or can’t afford something, then don’t spend the money or don’t buy it!
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Investors with deep pockets that clearly have no idea their money is just being wasted, Advertisers that don’t understand their advertising dollars are being spent on a station that has close to zero listeners, announcers that just waffle with no idea what they should be saying, a news service that is just nonsense, it goes on and on and on. Others have tried and failed, why should SEN be any different.
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I don’t think it’s unreasonable for businesses to take on debt to grow their business. However, it is yet to be seen if SEN’s rapid fire approach to buying anything not nailed down, including $12m for a single radio station and buying any small town narrowcast transmitter it can get its hands on, is going to be sustainable. In the short term this appears unlikely with its current audience levels, but in the longer term, who knows.
I have the impression SEN was doing ok when it just a niche radio station. Now it’s been taken over by Mr Hutchinson it’s grown into some sort of sports media monolith but so far it doesn’t seem to have the mass audience to support it.
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SEN must think that so long as they “up-scale” that the listeners will come.
But regardless of scaling your product, if it’s core offering is low-rating and not successful (even with 1116SEN), then why even consider growing & further investment?
Fix the core offering (i.e. fix 1116SEN, 1170SEN and 693SENQ) and THEN grow (into NZ, sporting teams, etc).
It seems to be a case of “too hard, too fast” for Sports Entertainment Network.
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